Evron Says Saudi Arabia is Major Factor in Delaying Peace Treaty

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Ephraim Evron, charged yesterday that “Saudi Arabia is the major factor which has delayed the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt” and called on “the American government to take new initiatives, especially in view of the developments in Iran, to prevail upon Saudi Arabia to endorse the agreements previously formulated at Camp David.”

Evron addressed several hundred delegates to a special Torah convocation of the Rabbinical Council of America at Congregation Beth Shalom here. He said he is convinced that “President (Anwar) Sadat is sincere in his pursuit of peace.” with Israel and “were it not for the intrusion of external pressures, particularly from Saudi Arabia, the pact would have been signed weeks ago.” The Israeli envoy claimed that the recent Baghdad meeting of Arab ministers “with Saudi Arabia playing a pivotal role, was primarily responsible for the hardening of the Egyptian position.”

Rabbi Sol Roth, first vice president of the Rabbinical Council, appealed to Jewish federations and welfare funds throughout the U.S., and particularly the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in New York “to establish at least 3000 scholarships to enable newly arrived Russian Jewish immigrants to receive a religious education.”

He warned that “Jewish schools are almost without exception in danger of financial bankruptcy due to rising costs of education which have driven tuition up sharply. The children of these Russian immigrants are ignorant of the basic rudiments of their faith,” he said, “and their absorption into Jewish schools cannot be achieved without the financial assistance which only Jewish welfare funds can provide.”

Roth said “It is to the credit of the federations that considerable assistance has been provided to these immigrants to help them become economically self-sufficient,” adding, “I profoundly believe, however, that it is equally incumbent upon the federations to assure the fiscal costs of providing to the children of these Russian families the Jewish education they sorely lack.”